The Happy Ending 1969

“The Happy Ending,” 1969, well this classic movie should really be titled,  “And they lived Unhappily Ever After.” As I watched it, I had to wonder what hellish consequences were unleashed on society by this selfish couple. It felt as if I were watching Fran Dodsworth (Ruth Chatterton) in pre-code movie “Dodsworth,” only with a feminist twist.

Jean Simmons plays Mary Wilson, a “poor, little rich” wife who turns to pills and alcohol to fill her empty existence. She is married to a highly successful husband, Fred, played by John Forsythe, who is ever absent at home in many ways. It’s their twentieth anniversary and Mary feels she’s in a rut. What to do? Mary indulges in reckless behavior; she runs up charge accounts, drinks like a fish, and packs up her crap and goes to the Bahamas to “find herself.” Mary bumps into an old college chum, played by Shirley Jones, whose life is even more screwed up than hers. Whereas Mary is bored with her dumb-ass husband and the drudgery of being a wife, Jones is the almost 40 happy hooker, who has played the “other woman” for years, and is now desperate, and desires to marry the current married man she’s with, played by Lloyd Bridges. Well maybe Mary and she should just trade places! I seem to remember something along the lines of “grass is greener…” Duh

 

At home Mary is supported emotionally  by her pill-popping cleaning woman, Agnes, fabulously played by Nanette Fabray. Agnes is the “go-to” girl for Mary. She is always there for Mary’s many crises. I see something totally wrong with this picture.  I can, in a way,  understand Agnes popping pills; one can only imagine the drudgery of her life. If Mary thinks her life is hell, what did she think Agnes’ life was like? Did Mary ever even ask?  Mary’s mom played by Theresa Wright, is of no help, as she is clueless and still trying to find her way around the new and changing times. Mary’s husband, Fred is a dumb-ass, plain and simple. He is a man who had too much drive at the cost of ignoring his family. He may give them all the material things in life, but he is a failure at everything else. And as most men in Fred’s position have done, and continue to do, they live wildly and are apathetic about those closest to them. As long as he gets what he needs at the moment, everything else is secondary. There are exceptions of course, but money and power does things to people.

 

The film has some great performances, especially that of Jean Simmons as the bored wife. Jean got the Oscar nomination for this role that year. Nanatte Fabrey as the cleaning lady was superbly good and funny. You have to love the cleaning lady’s attitude despite her hard life. Forsythe as the clueless, but well-meaning hubby was good.  What I found hysterical were the flashbacks of the once happy couple Mary and Fred. Simmons & Forsythe played both roles! Give me a break they looked old in those college day flashbacks! They really should’ve used younger actors.

Giving Mary a piece of my mind…

 

I really tried to get in Mary’s head, and I understood some of her problem, but not all.  I have very little compassion for Mary, life happens Mary. I can only wonder what other women in her very community and in her day had to do to take care of their families, like work two jobs, etc. and they didn’t turn to drugs and alcohol, or take “find myself” trips. Instead they put on their “big girl” panties and dealt with it. They had no time to be “bored” with their lives. You Mary had too much time in your hands, believed in fairy tales, and got too caught up in the emerging feminist movement. Mary had valid reasons to want to be autonomous and find her way in a pre-feminist time, but it takes two to tango. Fred was not the perfect husband, nor Mary the perfect wife. If you believe life is a big fairy tale…you will live unhappily ever after no matter what path you take because life happens.